The present invention relates generally to disk drives, and particularly to a gimbal-level piezoelectric microactuator for read/write heads for disk drives.
One of the major problems of using high suction air bearings in load/unload application shows up during the unloading of the heads. The negative suction forces induces an impulse loading contributing to the excitation of the head-gimbal assembly ("hga"). In addition to the excitation of the head-gimbal assembly, the hga is required to travel up the ramp a considerable distance before the system is able to overcome the suction force. The unload travel distance up the ramp translates into valuable unused real estate at the outside diameter of the disc.
Accordingly, there is a need in the art for an actuator for supporting and finely-positioning a read and/or write hga with sufficient accuracy and to operate with a minimum of unused real estate, namely substantially below that possible with typically known systems.